What Are the Impacts of Adopting OER?

The
OER Adoption Impact Explorer
helps you understand some of the impacts of adopting OER instead of commercial textbooks.
Change the values below to match data from your institution to see how OER adoption can benefit your students and institution.
Charts, graphs, and language will update in real time as you make changes.

Institutional Settings

Average Textbook Cost:

Number of Student Enrollments Using OER:

Student Fee Supporting OER Program ($ per enrollment):

% of Students Paying In-State Tuition:

Cost Per Credit Hour (In-state):

Cost Per Credit Hour (Out-of-state):

% of Students Historically Receiving a C or Better:

% of Students Historically Dropping:

% of Bookstore Textbook Costs Returned to Institution as Income:

Research-based Settings

% Increase in C or Better Among OER Users:

% Decrease in Drop Rate among OER Users:

Additional Credits Taken by OER Users:

The default values for these Research-based Settings are taken from research conducted by the
Open Education Group.
The articles reporting these studies, which included over 40,000 students at 11 institutions,
are currently under review for publication in peer-reviewed journals. Tinker with the values to explore the various impacts OER can have on your students and campus.

Total Textbook Cost to Students

% of Day One Students Earning a C or Better

Student Success Per Required Textbook Dollar

Tuition Revenue Refunded to Students Who Drop

Tuition Revenue from Increased Enrollment Intensity

Students whose faculty assign OER can reinvest their textbook savings in taking additional courses.
If the average OER user enrolls in an additional
credit(s), the institution stands to receive an additional $
in tuition revenue.

Net Institutional Revenue Change

Acknowledgments

The
OER Adoption Impact Explorer,
version 0.8, is a joint project of the
Open Education Group
and
Lumen Learning.
Figures provided by the Explorer are estimates. The OER Adoption Impact
Explorer is written in
R
and delivered by
Shiny.